Going for the Gold

We ended our days in Michigan with a fabulous family wedding and hopped on a train to Chicago, another amazing city surrounded by lakes. We saw friends and enjoyed a few more days of midwestern summer fun. Then it was on to London for the 2012 Olympic Games.

We stayed with our friend Joanna who has a beautiful flat in West London. We loved staying with her and living like a local. She gave us the scoop on riding the underground and the classic red double-decker buses. We did sooooooooo many fun things, I couldn’t help but think I am the luckiest girl in the world! We had a picnic in Hyde Park which is one of London’s many huge parks. They put up big screens to watch the Olympics and there were venders and activities happening all around us.

The whole city was alive with the Olympic spirit. We had the chance to
meet some of the Olympic athletes from the 205 countries that competed.
We went to the V&A Museum which had an awesome exhibit on the
History of Fashion and several extravagant ball gowns were on display.
We shared lunch with Stephan and Tyler, A.K.A The Global Bros, who also
wrote a blog for National Geographic when they traveled around the world
a few years ago.

We were lucky enough to get tickets to some of the
Olympic Games. My Mom and I watched some epic beach volleyball, both
the men’s and woman’s semi finals. We had amazing seats under the full
moon with Buckingham Palace behind us and the sand courts in front of
us. It’s my favorite sport, Misty May-Treanor is my volleyball hero and
Yes USA won both the women’s and the men’s match…it was AWESOME! My
dad and Everest went to a Gold Medal fencing match and watched USA win
another medal. They loved it. It was even cooler because we had been to
The Wallace House museum the day before and saw the most incredible
armor and sword collection.

On day fourteen of the events we explored
the massive Olympic Park and watched USA win gold in the men’s diving
finals. It was all the way to the last second and we beat the Chinese
who were favored to win.

We also wandered the gorgeous streets of
London. We saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tower Bridge, and rode the
London Eye. Everest’s favorite stop was Hamleys the giant toy store. One
night we were lucky enough to get tickets to Singing in the Rain, a
London Musical. It was raining that night so we sang in the rain all the
way back to the flat. On our last morning we went to the men’s
marathon. The Ugandan ran like a gazelle the entire 26 miles and was the
first to the finish line. I cannot believe all the amazing things we
experienced in this 12 day stretch, but now we are off to Iceland to
watch my cousin play Professional Soccer or as the locals would say
football.